ON THE FLY

Band of Brothers in the sky?

‘Meet the gang ‘cos the boys are here, the boys to entertain you’

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ hit WWII miniseries Band of Brothers and The Pacific focused on US troops on the ground in Europe and on the marine campaigns of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, respectively. Now the duo look skyward with an adaptation of Donald L. Miller’s sweeping book.

Focusing on the men of the 100th Bombardment Group stationed in Norfolk and carrying out dangerous daylight raids over Germany in B-17s (so-called flying fortresses), Masters of the Air follows the multi-story narrative of its predecessors to create a tapestry of warfare experience 25,000 feet up – whether pilot, gunner, navigator or mechanic. ‘It is a salute to the brave men of the Eighth Air Force, who, through their courage and brotherhood, helped defeat Nazi Germany in World War II,’ producer Gary Goetzman promises. ‘Tom and Steven have always wanted to visualise cinematically what our author Don Miller has called this “singular event in the history of warfare.”’

And like Band of Brothers and The Pacific, nine-parter MotA hits the zeitgeist with its cast – Elvis’ Austin Butler and Fantastic Beasts’ Callum Turner play majors and BFFs at the heart of the action, alongside on-fire Barry Keoghan, new Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, Jude’s son Raff Law, stage star Anthony Boyle and a host of sure-to-be-huge men-in-arms.

The lads were all put through boot camp as they arrived for filming in the UK in 2021, training together and learning the mechanics of flying. An experience Butler, fresh off obsessing over Elvis, tells us was a ‘beautiful thing’ in bonding the cast and focusing everyone on a concerted (war) effort. ‘I went immediately into boot camp. I went from being on stage in a jumpsuit, to being just one of 50 guys in fatigues. It was really humbling, and there’s something about the uniformity that I think started to cleanse me.’ Some of his Presley drawl seems to have remained in trailers that promise eye-popping aerial battles and fraught emotional journeys, which hope to keep us hooked on a weekly basis through spring. Bombs away!